Peugeot 208 T16 R5 vs Ford Fiesta R5
“I WAS 3.5s quicker than in Free Practice,” said Breen. “The road is cleaning and I’m quite happy with the time although there are one or two small things to change.”
Breen’s performance means he will be the first driver to select his starting position when the selection ceremony takes place in Ponta Delgada at 12:45hrs local time.
Ricardo Moura, who is making his competitive debut in a Ford Fiesta R5, was second fastest, 1.239s down on Breeen with Kajetan Kajetanowicz next up in another Fiesta R5, 0.265s slower than Moura.
Kevin Abbring was fourth fastest in the second factory-supported 208T16 on his first competitive run on gravel for almost two years. Vasily Gryazin was fifth quickest with two-time event winner Bruno Magalhães sixth. Robert Consani was seventh quickest with Bernardo Sousa a slightly frustrated eighth after a technical problem struck his Fiesta RRC.
“It’s good to be back but we had a small issue with the car and arrived at the start of the stage on the time limit,” said Sousa. “It was a normal time, there is a long rally ahead of us and there was no sense in pushing as the Qualifying Stage is not like the rest of the rally. I don’t know what the problem was, we changed the plugs and reconnected everything.”
author: European Rally Championship